Hard to drive…
HERE ARE A NUMBER of ways of taking video files from your PC and playing them on your TV. Some ways are easier than others and the AirLive player – which I got to play with recently – is one of the more labour-intensive ways.
The idea is that you copy music, video and photos from your PC on to this device – which is a USB hard drive with connectors for your TV and a remote control – and then watch or listen on the TV or music system.
The first thing you need to do with this device is find a hard drive, because it's sold without one. Installation was a matter of connecting up the drive and sliding it in, something that anyone with basic tool skills would be able to handle.
But that's where it became interesting. You need to format the drive in FAT32 format (the version Windows used before Windows 2000) and if you try to do that with Windows XP you may run into trouble – as I did. The trick here is to have a tame geek on call to sort out problems.
Once it's set up, you need to copy some movies or music from your PC to the device. Once that's done you plug it into your TV and access your files through the menu system, which is easy to use and understand even if it does look a little like a copy of the menu system Apple uses on its computers for media playback.
Video – in the correct format – works very well. But because there's no way of managing your music or photos, using it for those file types is only practical if you have a small number of pictures or music on the device.
If all you want is a small system to watch movies on instead of a DVD player, this is a great option.
However, for music and photos the limitations outweigh the benefits.
Finweek
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